Moonshot: Slot Overview

One upside of Pragmatic Play sticking to such a relentless release schedule is that, with so many concepts being tried, a few genuinely solid ones are bound to land. The downside is that plenty of weaker ideas also make it out the door, feeling half-formed and a little baffling. Moonshot is one of those curious Pragmatic Play creations where you may need to park logic for a moment and spend some time in a setting that’s rarely—if ever—seen in online slots, just to decide whether it clicks with you. Some players will probably enjoy its oddball vibe. Let’s find out where it leaves us.

To clear things up right away, Moonshot seems to have nothing (from what we can tell) to do with assembling a rocket, handpicking astronauts, spinning them in a centrifuge for face-stretching g-force training, and launching them into space on one of humanity’s most intimidating inventions. Instead—and apologies if we’ve totally misread it—Moonshot appears to draw on some kind of cultural (Slavic?) festival or celebration, with people in strange masks and drinking cups of… tea? It’s genuinely difficult to work out what’s happening, and a proper info sheet would have helped a lot. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any extra detail available at the time of writing, so anyone interested will have to use their imagination to work out what’s going on—or at least attempt to.

If you’re willing to roll with it, Moonshot lets you stake 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin, and it also includes a bonus buy option. Volatility is high, and for those chasing the best return version, the top RTP comes in at 96.5%. The game runs on a 5 reels by 4 rows layout, giving players 1,024 ways to put together wins.

Wins are formed when matching symbols land from reel 1 across 3 or more consecutive reels (or 2 or more for the top premium mask symbol). A full 5 OAK pays 1 to 1.5 times the bet with 10-A card ranks, while the higher-value cup of tea, gourd, blueberries, plums, cherries, and mask symbols return 1.5 to 4 times the bet. Supporting this is the wild symbol, which substitutes for all standard paying symbols. Wilds can appear on every reel except the far-left one.

Moonshot: Slot Features

Up to now it’s been a bit of a head-scratcher, so perhaps the feature set can bring some clarity. Moonshot includes Golden Mask symbols, free spins, and a bonus buy to cover.

Golden Mask

Golden Mask symbols act as wild symbols in a limited way, showing up on reels 2 to 5 and substituting for the top paying mask symbol only. Golden Masks also carry multipliers—the more masks shown on the Golden Mask symbol, the higher the multiplier. With 1 mask, the multiplier is x1; with 2 masks, it becomes x2; and 3 masks indicate a multiplier of x3. This multiplier applies to all winning combinations of the top-paying premiums symbol.

Free Spins

Hitting 3, 4, or 5 of the coin bag scatters triggers 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. During free spins, all masks and Golden Masks are collected when they land. Each time 40 of them are collected, the level increases:

• Level 1 – Golden Masks can land with multipliers of x1, x2, or x3, randomly.
• Level 2 – Golden Masks can land with multipliers of x2 or x3 randomly. Achieving this level awards +3 free spins.
• Level 3 – Golden Masks land with multipliers of x3. Achieving this level awards +3 free spins.

Once Level 3 is reached, any remaining free spins or retriggers continue at that level. Landing 2, 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols awards 5, 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. Lastly, if you want to purchase direct access to free spins, it costs 80 times the bet, and the RTP is 96.5%.

Moonshot: Slot Verdict

So what is Moonshot actually trying to be? After giving it a run, one possible reading is that the “tea” everyone’s downing isn’t exactly Earl Grey or a standard breakfast blend, but something with a more psychedelic edge. A sip doesn’t just calm you down—it pushes you into a reality-bending headspace: an inner moon-shot, so to speak. We may be completely off here (and probably are), but it’s honestly the most workable explanation we could come up with for what’s going on in Moonshot.

The mechanics are much easier to pin down: it’s mainly about masks, Golden Masks, and multipliers, then collecting them during free spins to climb levels. That’s essentially the core loop. If the trippy theme doesn’t grab you, there isn’t a huge amount else to get excited about. There’s not much more to add beyond that. The max win is 5,000 times the bet, which is perfectly respectable, though plenty of Pragmatic Play slots hit similar numbers (or more), so it doesn’t exactly stand out.

Pragmatic Play is a studio that keeps its output running at full throttle. That kind of pace does demand fresh ideas to keep things moving, fair enough. Not every release can be another Egypt, Leprechaun, or fruit-themed slot, but even with that in mind, Moonshot doesn’t feel like one of Pragmatic Play’s stronger efforts. It may appeal to players who can’t resist unusual themes, but beyond that, it’s difficult to find many compelling reasons to recommend it.